Maternity Leave Policy- What's yours?

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I can't believe how many of you have to elect for STD during open enrollment. So if you get pregnant right after the election period closes, you're screwed. Do you have to pay for the benefit too?


Agree that the status of maternity leave is atrocious, BUT I think some people don't quite understand what short-term disability is. It's an insurance policy, which means that it's paid for largely by the people who don't use it. If everyone just opted in when they knew they were going to need it, there wouldn't be any money to pay the benefits. That's like calling Geico after you've had the car accident. It just doesn't work that way. If your company doesn't pay for STD but offers it, it's smart to opt in anyway because you never know what's going to come up (pregnancy or otherwise).
Anonymous
Small/medium company that qualifies for federal FMLA. For first child you get 4 weeks paid plus what ever vacation time you have. For subsequent births you only get vacation days as paid.
Anonymous
lobbying/PR firm with about 125 employees

12 weeks at 100% pay. Some people suppliment with vacation time and others take up to 6 months with the post 12-week period unpaid.
Anonymous
Federal government. FMLA only (after one year of employment). People go on LWOP if they have to, during the FMLA period. There's also a leave donation program (managed by HR, I believe) for those who have already run out of their leave. Employees use the program for various medical reasons. Comp time is not permitted to be used during FMLA.

DH works in law; he gets four weeks of paternity. He can't break up the period - must be contiguous - and he gets four weeks, not 20 days (meaning no extra days if holidays happened to fall within the four weeks).
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I can't believe how many of you have to elect for STD during open enrollment. So if you get pregnant right after the election period closes, you're screwed. Do you have to pay for the benefit too?


Agree that the status of maternity leave is atrocious, BUT I think some people don't quite understand what short-term disability is. It's an insurance policy, which means that it's paid for largely by the people who don't use it. If everyone just opted in when they knew they were going to need it, there wouldn't be any money to pay the benefits. That's like calling Geico after you've had the car accident. It just doesn't work that way. If your company doesn't pay for STD but offers it, it's smart to opt in anyway because you never know what's going to come up (pregnancy or otherwise).


Yes, and usually it is very cheap. I've ALWAYS elected STD coverage even when I was single. And I have known plenty of people who used STD coverage for things other than childbirth.

I SAH now but when I gave birth I worked at a corporation in MD with 30,000 employees (throughout the country). We had no maternity leave, were eligible for FMLA, had STD plan offered which paid 60% for 5 or 7 weeks depending in type of delivery and then we could also use (relatively generous) sick and vacation leave concurrently with FMLA.
Anonymous
Small software consulting firm - just over 50 people stateside. Until I asked to see the policy, there was no policy!

STD, which kicks in after 10 days. Once the doctor clears you to return to work it ends. So I'll end up getting 66% pay for 4-6 weeks depending on the type of birth. You can use accrued vacation time to fill in the 10 day gap from when you give birth to when STD starts to pay. Then there's FMLA, assuming the company still has over 50 employees when I give birth next month.

No option to work from home.
Anonymous
Union: <20 employees
STD: 4 weeks at 60%
Accrued sick and annual must be exhausted before STD kicks in
All leave concurrent with 12 weeks FMLA

It pisses me off just thinking about it.
Anonymous
<50 national nonprofit in DC.
STD pays 5 weeks at 60% (after 5 sick days).
Runs concurrently with DCFMLA (16 weeks unpaid).
Can use accrued vacation/sick during FMLA. (We accrue 12 days sick/15 days vacation per year.)
sybersus
Member Offline
I work for a nonprofit of about 200 employees. We get 6 weeks of paid maternity or paternity leave. After that, you can take vacation time but not sick time, unless your doc says you need more than 6 weeks to recover from childbirth. We can take up to 6 more weeks for a total of 12 weeks with no problem. (My org does not have enough employees in DC to qualify for the 16 week minimum leave that DC calls for.) Having said that, I'm planning on taking at least 16 weeks if I can afford it. I don't think my child care situation will be figured out before then, and I think I will not be ready to go back to work at 12 weeks myself.
sybersus
Member Offline
oops, pressed "send" too soon. Two more points. First, if we've paid on our own for STD, the last 6 weeks of maternity week are covered by that. But those who chose not to opt into the coverage (which is not paid for at all by work) are out of luck. Second, the 12 weeks we are guaranteed to take is based on federal law, but employees pretty regularly negotiate for more (unpaid) time off, hence my expectation that I'll take at least 16 weeks off.

sybersus wrote:I work for a nonprofit of about 200 employees. We get 6 weeks of paid maternity or paternity leave. After that, you can take vacation time but not sick time, unless your doc says you need more than 6 weeks to recover from childbirth. We can take up to 6 more weeks for a total of 12 weeks with no problem. (My org does not have enough employees in DC to qualify for the 16 week minimum leave that DC calls for.) Having said that, I'm planning on taking at least 16 weeks if I can afford it. I don't think my child care situation will be figured out before then, and I think I will not be ready to go back to work at 12 weeks myself.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind, when you return to work with a newborn at home/daycare/wherever, they get sick a lot (especially in daycare).
I had zero sick leave, vacation, etc. and had to take some unpaid leave for dr. appts for weeks before I accrued more leave. Then I started getting sick.... my boss has no children, so this all confused her and pissed her off.


PP BigLaw staffer here. THIS. This is the kicker that doesn't really sink in until you've been back at work for a couple weeks and you start getting sick. My bosses are pretty understanding as they both have small children themselves, but it's becoming a problem. My husband does what he can, but his job is a lot more high pressure than mine and even splitting the time at home 50/50 still means that any vacation that I get this year will be unpaid because I spent my paid time off taking care of a sick baby.


Yes but not always. I cut short my maternity leave because I too was worried about having enough sick days leftover. Turned out I had a very healthy baby who rarely got sick in the first 8 months in daycare so I didn't really need them and could have used another week or two of maternity leave. It helped that he started daycare right after cold and flu season, and I know this is not everyones experience.
Anonymous
4weeks maternity leave, 2weeks paternity, rest fmla 16 weeks in dc). No official telecommuting policy related to pregnancy, but I've never heard it being denied for ordered bed rest.
Anonymous
12 weeks (actually 60 days) fully paid. And then most women extend it by taking annual leave. I was on bedrest up to delivery and that came out of sick leave not the maternity leave policy. International organisation based in Washington.
Anonymous
Which one of the lawyer ladies contributing here will lobby (or sees any chance to?) to CHANGE the laws and bring our country out of the 19th century and bump us up above Lesotho and Swaziland in maternal policies?

Is it not interesting that of all working professions, lawyers (if working for a law firm) get the most generous leave (5-6 mo paid not unusual) while the rest of the female workforce in the country is in the pits?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Which one of the lawyer ladies contributing here will lobby (or sees any chance to?) to CHANGE the laws and bring our country out of the 19th century and bump us up above Lesotho and Swaziland in maternal policies?

Is it not interesting that of all working professions, lawyers (if working for a law firm) get the most generous leave (5-6 mo paid not unusual) while the rest of the female workforce in the country is in the pits?


You speak as though it's a level playing field, and it's not. Law firms have much, much bigger incentives to put these policies in place than most other work places. It's been very hard for them to retain female talent, because law firm jobs tend to be extremely unfriendly to those with families (which generally hit working moms harder). Not only does this mean that good talent leaves the firm, but it also means that it's harder to recruit female attorneys in the first place (both because they scrutinize the polices and because they look to see how much of the senior talent is female).

Even with such policies, women are still leaving such firms in droves, because it's just too hard to balance work and life. What they get for in an amazing maternity leave policy, they make up for in miserable hours the rest of their lives at those firms.

I'm not saying that the maternity leaves most people get aren't atrocious -- I think it's absolutely appalling. That said, it's not a matter of skilled negotiating that's going to change things. The companies need to have the incentives and the incentives are very different at law firms than many other places.
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